Eurozone unemployment steady for 8th month running

BRUSSELS – Unemployment in the eurozone appears to have stabilized as official figures showed the rate in November steady at a record 12.1 per cent for the eighth month running.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, says Wednesday that 19.24 million people were out of work in the eurozone in November, up 4,000 on the month. Since September’s 12.2 per cent rate was revised down, 12.1 per cent is now the record for the eurozone.

The figures highlight huge disparities across the then 17-country eurozone.

While countries like Germany and Austria have unemployment rates around 5 per cent, those at the forefront of Europe’s debt crisis, such as Greece and Spain, have over one in four of their people out of work.

Policymakers are hoping the eurozone’s return to economic growth may get unemployment down.